ACTIONS TO COLLECT FROM CHEVRON ARE NOT DETAINED

The legal processes to collect from the oil company Chevron in Canada, Brazil and Argentina do not suffer any setbacks caused by the decision by the United States Supreme Court, emitted Monday, June 19th.

Quito, June 19th, 2017.- The Union of People Affected by Texaco (UDAPT) announced that the ruling issued by the Supreme Court, rejecting a request filed by attorney Steven Donziger, does not affect the progress of the of the different exequatur processes in Canada, Brazil and Argentina. The directors of the organization reported that this ruling does not involve the inhabitants of the Ecuadorian Amazon, represented by UDAPT.

The Supreme Court of the United States just wasted the opportunity to reverse a sentence based entirely on the testimony of an Ecuadorian judge who was dismissed for corruption and who admitted to having received more than two million dollars in benefits from Chevron for lying in the trial. The ruling confirms the partiality of the North American justice system in defense of its corporations. Pablo Fajardo, attorney of the plaintiffs, noted that the United States courts never allowed the Ecuadorians to speak about the environmental damages committed by the company, and for this reason the Ecuadorians decided not to appeal. A separate case is that of lawyer Steven Donziger, who did appeal to the Supreme Court in an attempt to change the ruling against him.

Pablo Fajardo maintains that “this ruling confirms that the North American justice system does nothing more than protect the company Chevron, without investigating nor ruling on the environmental and social crime of the oil company in Ecuador. This decision also demonstrates that the United States justice system is biased against the indigenous and rural communities and favors North American corporations.” (Translated from Spanish)

Fajardo emphasized that the participation of Donziger in this process Donziger does for his personal interest, not as attorney nor representative of the affected communities. Donziger has been separated from the legal team that represents UDAPT by decision of the affected communities.

The sum of the sentence amounts to more that 9.5 billion dollars (plus interest), which will be invested in environmental remediation of the affected zones. UDAPT reaffirms its decision to execute the sentence and to “pursue Chevron’s assets until the corporation pays for the environmental damage it caused.”